By now everyone should be familiar with the crowdfunding site known as Kickstarter. This is a web service
that acts as a community bank for start-up
companies and lone-wolf inventors who
know that they have the key to “the next big
thing” if only they had the finances to make
it happen.

On May 5th of this year, Hong Quan and
Neal Saiki went public with a Kickstarter
campaign to fund the first production
run of their Karmic Koben e-bike. At
first glance the attractive bike was
not all that noteworthy: aluminum
frame with the au-currant sloping
top tube, high-rise carbon fork,
a Bafang motor attached to the
bottom bracket, and a battery
case mounted along the seat
tube.

However, what the bike may
have lacked in the visual diversity, it more than made up for in
the pedigree of one of the men
behind the creation. Neal Saiki
was not only one of the original figureheads behind leading
mountain bike brand Santa Cruz,
but following his stint with the
pedal set, he went on to found
the pioneer e-moto brand Zero
Motorcycles. In short, those are
some solid credentials.

In his time since leaving Zero,
Neal went to work chasing new types
of battery technology. And then Hong
came knocking. He wanted to start an
e-bike brand, and he wanted Neal to
partner with him. The Karmic brand was
formed in September of 2014, and the
energy of the union was what led to the
Kickstarter campaign that was looking for
$182,000 in funds. Within seven days, the
money was made.

{UP FRONT }

THE KARMIC KOBENGETS A KICK-START

Or, how to design a cutting-edge e-bike
and make $200,000 in seven days